a fresh start

Getting serious about running over the past few years has really changed my mentality on eating. I invested so much time and energy into training for the marathon last year that I made a conscious effort to put the same energy into what I was fueling my body with. It was a necessary focus at the time, but I kept up with it for so many months that it's just become habit. I've always been a relatively healthy eater but processed foods were a big part of my diet. For the past year I've been able to stick to eating real, unprocessed foods about 90% of the time.

My mother in law is a wealth of knowledge regarding holistic health and nutrition and she's turned me on to so many secret ways to use foods and spices for overall health and beauty. While she was visiting over the Christmas holiday she told me about a juice blend that is recommended for cancer patients, but is something we should all drink every morning, as a fresh start to our day.

My beet, carrot and apple juice {I also added parsley, kale, celery and ginger} from this morning. Before drinking coffee or tea or anything else in the morning, drink this freshly juiced concoction within 30 minutes of preparation.

The recipe is one beet, one apple and three carrots.

Not having a juicer on hand, I started out making these using the food processor. As you can see below it's a thick mess, but it still tasted really good to me. I drank one of these every morning the week before the marathon.

I figured if I could stick with pulling out the food processor and cleaning everything up in the morning before I left for work each day for at least a few weeks, then I would look into buying a juicer. After reading about the benefits of the actual juice versus drinking the entire fruit and veggies, I knew I had to take the plunge and get a juicer.

I really wanted the stainless Breville Juicer but hubby happened to be out and about earlier this week and this was the only model he could find. The Jack LaLanne Power Juicer.

It's a big ugly beast, but it does the trick and best of all, it's super duper quiet, which is critical for the 5am juicing fest going on in my kitchen nowadays. ☺

I watched a few videos on how to use it and clean it etc, and I was a pro my first go round. Within just this first week I have so much energy and I'm able to think more clearly. Of course it could all be psychological but whatever, I know I'm putting something good into my body first thing every morning and I have so much more energy during my early morning runs.

There is so much info out there on the benefits of juicing so if you're interested in starting this yourself click here or here for more info. I'm not planning on doing any juice cleansing at all, but Sarah Britton has some great 'juice feasting' combinations over here.

Here's to starting fresh each and every day!

T